Windows for the In^xperienced

Chapter 1

Using the Mouse continued

Most double-click operations cause a program to execute or a window to open.  There is another alternative to this.  Right-clicking most objects opens a sub menu where there are several options to choose from.

                                Fig 1-2

The default mouse action will be shown in Bold type.  The default option is the one that would have been carried out had you double-clicked the icon, in the case of the submenu shown in Fig 1-2, that would be the Close option.  However, with this menu open you can select another option by pointing the mouse cursor at it and then clicking the Left mouse button.

When you open a text editing or word processing program, the mouse cursor changes to an insertion point - a vertical bar looking a bit like a capital I.

Mouse cursor Insertion point:

Fig 1-3

There is also a text cursor, usually a blinking vertical bar indicating where text will be inserted if you start typing on the keyboard.  This Notepad document, shows the text cursor and the mouse cursor.

To go to a particular point in the document using the mouse, you move the mouse cursor (Insertion point) to where you want to go and click the Left mouse button.  This action moves the text cursor to the new position from where it was before.

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